The Federal Maritime Commission released a Study of U.S. Inland Containerized Cargo Moving Through Canadian and Mexican Seaports, which had been prompted by requests from members of Congress to study the impacts and the extent to which the U.S. Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT), enacted in 1986, other U.S. policies and other factors may incentivize U.S.-bound container cargo to shift from U.S. seaports to those located in Canada and Mexico.
The Port of Seattle is installing three more cranes capable of handling the large container vessels that are expected after the Panama Canal expansion, it said. Its Terminal 18, run by SSA Terminals, will install the Super Post Panamax cranes. The cranes are 267 feet high, and can extend out to handle the new Triple E Class vessels, which can carry up to 18,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) with a width of 210 feet, or 24 containers.
Abu Dhabi Ports Co. is finishing intensive and full scale tests before the Sept. 1 launch of Khalifa Port, the only semi-automated container terminal in the region, it said. The first commercial vessel to arrive, the Ever Dynamic, from Evergreen Line with a total capacity of 4,173 TEUs (Twenty foot Equivalent container Units) arrived safely at Khalifa Port July 18, it said. The company said it will continue to transition and test with individual shipping lines over the next month, with the aim of officially opening Khalifa Port’s new container terminal Sept. 1. Phase One of the Khalifa Port Container Terminal will initially handle 2.5 million TEUs container traffic and 12 million tons of general cargo annually. By 2030, it's expected that Khalifa Port will be able to handle 15 million TEUs and 35 million tons of general cargo per year.
Research and Markets lowered "expectations for external trade growth in 2012, with real imports now expected to rise by 3.8% (from 5.0%) and exports by 3.5% (from 5.0%)," it said in a new report: "These factors combine to put considerable negative pressure on port throughput volumes."
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon rejected the bid of ICTSI and the Port of Portland to intervene in what the International Longshore and Warehouse Union called the "micromanagement of waterfront operations," during a hearing July 19 in Portland, Ore. Simon rejected three of the four motions in federal court, saying that claims of low productivity don’t violate the court order, and that there was no proof of intentional efforts to violate the TRO, the ILWU said.
The Obama Administration announced infrastructure projects to help modernize and expand 5 major U.S. ports, including Jacksonville, Miami, Savannah, New York and New Jersey, and Charleston. The administration also announced a White House-led task force of senior officials from various White House offices, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Departments of Transportation, Commerce, Homeland Security, and the Treasury. The task force will develop a federal strategy and decision-making principles that focus on the economic return of investments into coastal ports and related infrastructure, it said. The port projects include:
Peabody Energy and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners announced long-term agreements to expand the Gulf Coast export platform for Peabody's Colorado, Powder River Basin and Illinois Basin coal products, they said. The deal gives Peabody additional access to Kinder Morgan's Deepwater Terminal and Houston Bulk Terminal (HBT) near Houston, and its International Marine Terminal (IMT) in Myrtle Grove, La., to export coal, increasing Peabody's Gulf Coast export capacity to about 5-7 million tons of coal per year between 2014 and 2020. Peabody said it also secured a rail service agreement with Union Pacific Railroad to transport the company's Colorado coal to Kinder Morgan's Houston terminals. Kinder Morgan will invest, including previously announced projects, about $400 million to expand its Gulf Coast terminal network. Peabody's Illinois Basin, Colorado and Powder River Basin coal will be exported through KMP's expanded IMT in New Orleans beginning in 2014. An existing agreement at the Cora river terminal in Illinois will be extended through 2018 to facilitate exports through IMT.
Charleston's Post 45 Harbor Deepening Project is expected to be completed sooner and cost less, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Charleston District said July 11. It said the deepening project's feasibility study, initially expected to be completed in 5-8 years, is now expected to be finalized in fewer than four years, so a 50-foot deepening project for Charleston Harbor can be finished four years earlier than initial projections. The Corps also announced a cost savings of about $5 million for the feasibility study.
The Port of Galveston said it received 8 bids for work on its Pier 16 Wharf Extension project. It said it expects to award contract within 60 days.
The South Carolina Ports Authority said it's working to develop an inland port in Greer, S.C., to improve the efficiency of international container movements between the Port of Charleston and elsewhere. The SCPA board authorized the negotiation of a preliminary engineering contract with Patrick Engineering, in the first step in the project, SCPA said. The SCPA's fiscal year 2013 capital plan included about $23.5 million in capital spending for the public-private partnership.